Bricky’s Sorry Song

NEW! Listen to the first four minutes of Bricky’s Sorry Song from the premiere performance of The Kate Kelly Song Cycle at the inaugural Kalari-Lachlan River Arts Festival, September 2011. With Melbourne soprano Sian Prior, accordionist Elizabeth Jones, Rachel Whealy (cello), Martin Lee (violin), and Justin Screen (clarinet), with the Forbes Shire Choir and the College For Seniors Choir under the baton of musical director William Moxey.
[Click at the left hand end of the black bar bar.]

Commentary
Bricky, or William Henry Foster, was Kate Kelly’s estranged husband, the son of Frederick and Mary Foster of No. 1 Browne Street, Forbes, NSW. He married Kate in 1888 when she was some months pregnant. More >>

The marriage was not a happy one. In May 1898, police were called to the couple’s home in Browne Street, several blocks from No. 1, to intervene in what we would now call domestic or family violence. “Wife bashing” had not yet been criminalised, so all the police could do was charge Foster with “indecent language” – because, as the arresting officer, Constable Webster, explained to the magistrate, he was heard swearing “in his own house to his wife, within the hearing of the public.” Foster pleaded guilty to this offense and was fined five pounds, four shillings and ten pence, or, in default, three months jail.

At around this time he moved to Burrawang Station west of Forbes to work as a horse tailer. On the evening of 4 October, 1898, he returned to Forbes to visit Kate and their four children, and stayed overnight. Kate disappeared the following day. Her body was found in the local lagoon more than a week later.

The Kate Kelly song cycle tells this story from several different perspectives. More >>

Bricky Foster died in Forbes Hospital in 1947 at the age of 80, having outlived his wife by some fifty years. He is remembered in Forbes as a difficult and sometimes violent man. Did he ever feel remorse for the way he treated his wife and family? Could he ever have apologized for the trauma his physical violence and verbal abuse caused them?

I’m too old to mount a horse Too old to raise my fist Though not too old to raise my glass Or boast at the pub ‘bout my youth As a drinker, a fighter, a horseman No-one could beat me then Except for she who’s still haunt’n me As a ghost from the Forbes Lagoon

Kate me darlin’, what would I do If you was ‘ere with me now? What could I say, what could I do To make you love me again?

She could have done better than me, I know Could have married my brother instead Artie was sober and straight and in love But Kate loved horses more than we men The only time I saw her happy Was breakin’ in colts at South Park Whisperin’ sweet nothin’s in their ears Till they did whatever she asked

So what did I, a jealous man, do? I forbade her from ridin’ again She disobeyed me, of course So I lashed out and hit her …

I hit the woman I cherished Even when she was with child Hit her and shouted abuse at her
The police couldn’t stop me ‘Cause it wasn’t against the law But Kate, she never let me forget What a mean mongrel I was She even tried to kick me out …

So what did I, a jealous man,do? I raised my hand and hit her Knocked her to the floor

Kate me darlin’, what would I do If you was ‘ere with me now? What could I say, what could I do To make you love me again?

So I got me a job at Big Burrawang Horse tailer for Tom Edols and Co Feedin’ and waterin’ the horses at dusk Bringin’ ‘em back to the camp at dawn The station was 300,000 acres then The biggest shearin’ shed in the world I lived in the barracks with the single men And we drank and fought and whored

On pay day I’d ride thirty miles into Forbes Leave some cash for Kate and the kids And yes, it’s true I was with her the night before the day she left But … I did not… I Did Not Kill Her … Though Brigit, the wife of my brother Swears black and blue that I did You drove her to her death, she said Instead of givin’ her support You raised your fist and hit her Hit her. Hit her Now hang your head in shame

Kate me darlin’, what would I do If you was ‘ere with me now? What could I say, what could I do To make you love me again?

I’m too old to mount a horse Too old to argue and fight A lonely old bloke, a bush battler If there’s one thing I’ve learned In all my years It’s that blokes like me are fools We’ve bashed, burned, shot, polluted Chopped down everything in our way If I had my life over again I wouldn’t live it in the same way

But at least I know now what I’d do If darlin’ Kate was here with me still

I’d say I’m Sorry, Forgive Me, Help me please And show me how to change ….